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When we talk about vintage names, we’re usually harking back to the Gay ’90s or the Roaring ’20s at the latest. But what about more recent vintage vintages? Are there any names that were popular just a couple of decades ago that are already ready for revival?–or are they all still too me, mom, or grandpa-ish?

The leading five girls’ names across the decade 0f the 70s were Jennifer, Amy, Melissa, Michelle and Kimberly, and among the boys’ Top 20–mostly dominated by classics–were Jason, Brian, Kevin, Jeffrey and Scott. I’m not suggesting that we’re quite ready for another generation of little Lisas (#6), any more than I’d suggest hanging a disco ball in your living room, but there are some buried possibilities further down in the mix that just might be getting ripe enough to pick again.

The names below were all in the top half of the popularity list throughout the Swinging 70s, and have either slid off the current list entirely or are very near the the bottom of the Top 1000. Most of them don’t particularly scream 70’s–some are semi-classics that were fading away at that time, a few are the kind of nickname names that are coming back into style.

I was talking to an acquaintance the other day and when she mentioned her young daughter Becca, I suddenly thought, “Hey, whatever happened to Becky?” You rarely hear of a Rebecca under the age of 13 these days who is called by that traditional diminutive.

This is something that happens with pet forms in general–they go through phases and changes as much as–or indeed more than–the mother name. For example when you hear the name Elizabeth, you have no idea of her age–she could be 99 or 9 months old–but you can certainly guess that Betty is a Grandma and that Liz and Beth are probably young adults.

But the prizes for the two names with the most mutable pet forms and offshoots have to go to Margaret and Elizabeth, many of whose diminutives have become stand-alone names. Here, in the roughest chronological order, is what Margarets and Elizabeths been known as over time: